You have a great SLR camera, cheap but with which you could not be more satisfied. You’ve got the King of Lenses, a beautiful 50mm f/1.4 aperture, especially for portraits. You’ve even invested in some accessories like a powerful fill-in flash or a reflector. The desire to produce beautiful portraits immortalizing human beauty through your lens is not lacking.
You are missing someone who poses as a model 😉
Today I bring you 4 quick ideas that will help you find models who want to pose for you:
1- Friends, your partner, or other fellow photographers: This is the method that can solve your life faster, at least when you are just starting out, although it is less effective in the long run. It simply consists of pulling, at first, your friends and relatives, close people with whom you have the confidence to ask them to pose for you. It can be your brother, cousin, Aunt Loli, or the grandmother herself. At first they will probably let you, but in the long run they will get tired, so it is not a very sustainable method in the long run. It is convenient to resort to it as a starting point for those who start in the portrait for the first time.
2- Clients with low budget: Well that, you are starting as a photographer, why not offer your services for free or almost free? Many clients (indie singers, music bands, models, small clothing companies) are on a very tight budget, and they have no qualms about taking advantage of the free services of a photographer, no matter how amateur this photographer is and how low the price is. whatever the quality of the results. After all, they don’t lose much either. On the other hand, many also do not have the expectations of ending up on the cover of Marie Claire. Instead, they allow you to develop your portraiture skills, and you can possibly use the photographs to build your own portfolio and start using it the day you want to establish yourself as a professional photographer.
3- TFCD Models: The acronym TFCD comes from the English “Time For CD”, which translated would be something like “Time for CD”. It consists of the model giving you her time posing for you, and instead you give her a CD with the photo book or the photos of the session. Fair enough deal. In this modality you generally meet young aspiring models, or who are still having their first experiences as models, they need to set up a book to promote themselves but they cannot afford to pay a professional photographer.
There are many Web Pages on the Internet that put models and photographers in contact under the TFCD modality. Google TFCD Models and you will find a Tsunami of pages. Be careful, some are more serious than others, so don’t sign up on the first page you see. Take some time to explore a few and sign up for the one that appeals to you the most.
4- Professional models: How much did your camera cost you? 800 Euros, 500, even 300? And the goal? If it is a good goal at least another 300 Euros. Sometimes we scratch absurdly. Have you considered how much it can cost you to hire a professional model? You can get a pleasant surprise. There is a huge variety of professionals willing to pose for you, for a wide range of prices. There are some with very high cache, or less prestigious and more affordable. I recommend that you launch a search on Google, you will find a lot of Pages with model sheets (example).
If you have had any experience with models or know of any other means of finding people to pose, please share it in the comments below.
If you have never explored these alternatives and you are attracted to the portrait, go for it. It’s easier than it seems 😉